


Consent Issues... pesky little things, right?

by marlowe78



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode s0303, Gen, Tag to "Irresistible", because what Lucius did is NOT ok, due to the ep, lots of talking, talking about consent-issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6249655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marlowe78/pseuds/marlowe78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the way back to Lavin's village, John has some things to get off his chest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Consent Issues... pesky little things, right?

**Author's Note:**

> So, this has been more or less bugging inside my head ever since I first saw that episode. Because I'm still a bit peeved about how the show handwaved Lucius' actions so they could have another fun-episode with "Irresponsible". Because his actions are NOT ok, and not really funny when you think about it. 
> 
>  
> 
> So. Not much action here, sorry. 
> 
> No beta, but if you find something wrong, please let me know.

On their walk from the jumper to Lucius’ village, John stopped suddenly and gestured to Ronon that they’d take a rest. He turned towards Lavin and stared at the… Prisoner might be appropriate, because there was no way he would call that creature a guest. Not even in his mind, not even with imagined airquotes.

“Mr. Lavin-“ he started, only to be interrupted by him at once.

“Oh, Lucius is fine.”

It took considerable effort to remain as seemingly unaffected as he’d looked before and he doubted he’d pulled it off completely.

“ _Mr. Lavin_ ” he continued, “let me make myself clear here. I have been told a lot of times – here and on my planet – that we cannot judge other people based on our values, even when we want to do that very much.” And oh, that had been one hell of a discussion. Elizabeth had actually yelled at him, nearly as angry as with the quarantine-issue. All for being undiplomatic and nearly ruining the negotiations with the St’rians. And he knew she’d been right. She’d read him the riot-act in a way that would have left Sergeant Billings back in basic training look like a cute little puppy. It had deeply disturbed him to feel so chastised by her and he’d vowed to never let it come this far ever again.

He’d probably break that vow sooner or later. Couldn’t be helped, with how much hers and his values and views on people’s behavior differed.

“I have come to … respect that advice, since it’s not people's fault how they’re brought up. That there are circumstances which have to be taken in consideration.” He could see Lavin shifting impatiently, but he was captivated by his talk. Good. “There’s just this thing with rape that will never sit well with me, and that will never be completely excused by upbringing and culture.”

“Now wait a minute-“ Lavin shouted, moving towards John but he was firmly stopped by a Satedan paw on his shoulder and a low growl in Ronon’s chest. “Wait a minute, I never forced myself on anyone!”

“Is that right? Because where I come from, the definition of rape is the nonconsensual sexual intercourse with someone else. And,” he quoted, because one day he’d had a very long, very tiring and in the end mind-altering discussion with Nancy about it and now he would be able to quote that everywhere – “ _lack of consent may result from either forcible compulsion by the perpetrator or an incapacity to consent on the part of the victim._. Do I have to tell you how your little drink made the people around you incapable of consenting?”

“No, no no. No no. They wanted to make me happy, I never forced anyone!” 

Teyla hissed, a mix of disgust and fiery anger on her beautiful face. It took some effort to not scream and shout, but John held on to his temper. One of the things he’d learned in his career was that a threat spoken in the quiet certainty that nothing would get in its way was taken very seriously, and that would not be achieved by raging and yelling. 

“Oh, you didn’t, did you? So – they were free to leave you whenever they wanted? Free to say ‘no, thanks, I don’t want you touching me’?” 

“That… n- of course!” Lavin stuttered, “they just never wanted to!”

“Tell me,” Ronon interrupted “how many wives did you have before finding those herbs?”

“And how many of those wives, or how many of our people, tried to get away from your grabby hands the first time they met you?” 

“They had ample time to say no!”

“Oh, did not my knee in your testicles give you a very definitive ‘no’, the other day? Before the potion?” Teyla asked, sweet and deadly. 

“Yeah. And tell me, how long did you have Ronon here hold McKay against a wall so he would be forced to breathe in your magic sweat?”

“Ugh, thank you, Colonel. Way to make it disgusting.” Rodney looked up and then back at his readings again, still apparently fixated on winning his space-gate-race with Colonel Carter.

“Way to make my point!” John shot back. The only redeemable thing about this was that it had been Rodney, and Lavin hadn’t wanted anything but his obedience. God – that sounded so horrible. John wondered how Elizabeth wasn’t foaming at the mouth about this, instead going for this lush kind of punishment.

His burst shut Lavin up. He didn’t look happy about it, but he also didn’t look close to remorseful. No, this way, the little shit wouldn’t learn a thing. Which is why they had stopped in the first place.

“Now, the point of this little talk is this: if it were up to me, I would cut off your manly bits with a blunt kitchen knife” – oh yes, that really made an impression, judging from the pallor on Lavin’s face – “and have you eat them for dinner. But lucky for you, I’m the only non-injured party here. You didn’t do anything to me,” not for lack of trying, but that was neither here nor there “and I have no right to be judge and jury about your actions. As much as it pains me. That is up to the ones you actually used and manipulated. The fact that you never … touched anyone beyond _touching_ them made an impression with Dr. Weir” not much of one, but enough for her to decide, together with Teyla, to let him live. “She convinced everyone else that it wasn’t her place, either.”

“Because of the not-judging of different cultures, right?” Lavin spoke as if that was the point of all this; he spoke as if the little jumper-ride with John had never taken place – like he would just be let go. Idiot.

“No. Because there are people who have been wronged even more severely than we were.” Teyla’s calm was just as much a mask as John’s own, he knew. She didn’t move a muscle, calm as a cold, frozen lake. 

“Your people have been used by you, enslaved by you-“ 

“No! I…”

John slammed his hand against a small tree, shaking it so hard a couple of fruits fell off - and hurting his hand quite a bit. “- yes, Mr. Lavin! You made them dependent on you, made them wait on you for everything you wanted, made them sleep with you whenever you wanted. They’d have starved themselves to death if you’d have told them to, and you did it by manipulating their minds. That is enslavement, or what would you call it?”

“Don’t answer that,” Ronon advised. Lavin didn’t. 

“They are kind people, friendly people. There is not a hint of an excuse why you turned out to be such a manipulative, disgusting person. There is no cultural excuse in your behavior, and you should pray to any god you believe in and thank them for the mercy you are receiving.”

“Mercy?” Lavin cried in outrage, “they will kill me when you bring me back there!”

“And we won’t interfere.” Ronon’s statement was flat and cold, and for a minute John thought about how much it must have hurt this proud man to have his mind altered, his emotions stolen and manipulated after all that he’d been through already. He’d been made a slave once in his life – being made into another, not just in body this time but in mind as well would be a hard blow. Not that he’d let it drain him; John knew Ronon would just go and be a bit more angry, a bit more vicious in his training the next few weeks. 

Maybe months. 

He already winced in anticipation. 

**

On their way back, this time without a stop, John asked Ronon what would have happened to someone like Lavin on Sateda. Out of curiosity, but also as a way to get rid of the tension in the jumper. 

After a moment of thought, Ronon answered “He would be strung up by his feet and left to die.”

For a moment, nobody spoke. 

“Sounds reasonable to me,” John said at the same moment Teyla said “That is barbaric!”

They looked at each other, and Teyla’s betrayed look hurt. He never liked it when he failed her in some way, when she looked at him like he was something alien that she’d never encountered and didn’t particularly like. So he started to explain. 

“He didn’t just manipulate people a bit, Teyla. What he did… it’s appalling.”

“He never hurt us. Surely a banishment or some time in prison would suffice as such.” Her voice was hard, like it was difficult for her to bring her wish for peace in line with her desire for vengeance for all that Lavin had done. 

Ronon snorted in the back, but that was all he’d say about it. 

Sighing, John tried to explain.”He might not have physically hurt you. But that was just dumb luck, Teyla. Think about it, how would you feel had he not just enticed grown-ups with his magic drink but had gone for children? What if he’d asked one of them to be his wife –“ she snarled at the idea, and John was glad that in most places his teams had visited, children were treated well. Lorne had once told about a planet where the age of marriage was set at ten years, but that had been one of a hundred so far. Elizabeth had cut that one off as trading-partner completely, even though it would have been a good supplier of vegetables. 

“Exactly. It was lucky that he wasn’t that kind of man, but that’s what it was– Luck. He is not a good man, Teyla. He’s manipulative, egoistical, short-sighted and dangerous. He might not have real malicious intent, but he is smart enough to know what he was doing. To know that he was making people do what he wanted, no matter the consequences. He sent you on a planet filled with Wraith!”

John suppressed a shudder at the memory. He’d had a very believable nightmare about that, not to mention the ice-cold terror of finding Elizabeth in the Gateroom and telling him, like it was a fun free-time-experience, that his team – his _friends_ \- had all gone on a suicide-mission just for shit and giggles. 

The idea that they’d be gone, dead or taken and sucked out with no way of finding them ever again would make him gasp awake for quite some time still, he was sure. 

Teyla was silent, thinking about his words or maybe thinking about what lay behind them. John couldn’t tell. He threw a glance at Rodney, who wasn’t participating in the discussion. That was odd, but before he could ask if he was alright or if something was bothering him, Teyla spoke again. “So you would really leave a man out on the village-square to choke to death on his organs, screaming for mercy – not just for what he did, but also for what he could have done?” The _I might have misjudged you, if so_ was sitting heavily between the lines. Not spoken out loud, but it might as well have been.

It hurt, but as always with her, it made John think. 

“No,” he finally admitted. ”No, I wouldn’t.” His views on torture were not as clear as they were on rape and mindfuckery, but he wouldn’t be able to keep stoic once the begging-for-life started. “I might leave him up for a bit, though.” _And then drag him out of town and leave him on a barren planet_. 

She stayed silent the rest of their voyage, and John thought about the, hm, _naivety_ some of the people in Pegasus still possessed. It was heartening and heartbreaking at the same time that they couldn’t even imagine what someone like Lavin could have done on Earth – what someone from Earth with the same drug might do. Maybe it said more about the moral state of his own planet than of theirs, John had to concede, but then he remembered Olesia and the cold calculation with which the Magistrate sacrificed parts of his people to the Wraith. 

No, it seemed that where there were humans, there was also the propensity for evil. It was just incredibly lucky that his first contact had been with the Athosians.

The people on Lavin’s planet were kind and friendly, and they wouldn’t physically hurt Lavin. They would kick him out, and that would be harsh in Lavin’s eyes, but that was _all_ that would happen. It still made John clench his fists. 

His team, his family, had suddenly turned against him, just because some fat little weasel of a man had bewitched them all. It wouldn’t have taken much, wouldn’t in fact have taken more than a very strong recommendation towards Elizabeth or Ronon or anyone, really, to give him a shove out of the Stargate, without a return ticket. 

Or to shoot him. 

He’d not been as scared in quite some time as he’d been when Ronon had threatened him in the Gateroom. 

“All right. Let’s get back home.” He shot another look over his shoulder, checking on McKay. God, he really looked pale right now. Hopefully, he was all right. Maybe he could scrounge up some muffins back on Atlantis – Rodney really liked the ones with the not-quite-chocolate.


End file.
